The Viet Minh take control of North Vietnam during the first Indochina War.

The Vietnam Doc Viet Minh was a Communist front organization founded by Ho Chi Minh in 1941 to organize resistance against French colonial rule and occupying Japanese forces.

The Viet Minh launched a long and bloody guerrilla war against French colonial forces known as the First Indochina War. Ultimately, the Viet Minh, decisively defeated the French at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in May 1954. On August 1, the armistice ending the war went into effect. The triumphant Viet Minh marched into Hanoi as the French prepared to withdraw their forces.

Under the provisions of the agreement signed at the Geneva Conference in July, Vietnam was to be temporarily split into approximately equal halves. The two halves were to be separated by a Demilitarized Zone. The northern half was to be governed by the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, and the southern half would be governed by the noncommunist State of Vietnam.